May 6, 2007

Vancouver International Half Marathon 2007

Well I finished... I did not run very well but I did tough it out and finished. I guess I will start with the stats - gun time - 2:02:24 chip time - 2:01:06 pace - 9:15 first half - 1:00:13 second half - 1:00:54.

Ok now I recap the last couple of days.. I took Thursday and Friday off to let me foot rest/heel before the half. Saturday morning I did an easy run to loosen my legs up and see how my lower legs and foot felt. Afterwards Kyle and I headed up to Vancouver to go to registration, check out the expo, check into our hotel, had a great pasta dinner with Briana and Cody who were also running the half.
Saturday night I slept horribly - I always sleep horrible the first night in a new place/hotel. I think I might have gotten maybe 4 hours of sleep or so and I kept waking up through out the night - I woke up with a soar throat. I'm a total morning person but I did not really feel myself - my left hip was a bit tight. We showered to help wake up and ran from our hotel to the start to warm up (maybe a mile at most). My foot and legs seemed to feel ok.
We got to the start and wandered around a bit found Briana and Cody and eventually headed out to the start and I had a gel and some salt. In the line up looked for Col and Bryan but never saw them (I guess they were way closer to the front). Once the pacers got in line I set myself up somewhere behind/close to the 1:45 guy and in front of the 2:00 one since my goal was to finish somewhere around of before 1:59. The gun went off and slowly everyone moved forward - it took me almost a minute to get across the start in the crowd.
I felt pretty good for the first 4 miles or so - ducking and weaving past walkers and slower runners. My first mile was 8:20, 2nd - 8:46, 3rd - 8:40 (had a gel), 4th - 8:41, 5th - 8:40.
Then it all went to cramp 6th mile was 9:30 :( - It started with my left hip and went all the way down the outside of my leg to my foot - a strange constriction that seemed to envelope my entire leg - I could not stride out and it hurt every time my foot came in contact with the ground. My right side felt left out and shortly after it started to do the same along with a sliver of pain ran up my shin and a knot formed around the very tip top of my hamstring. It was bad. I took anothetgel and some salt but nothing seemed to change - though it did not really feel like a salt cramp anyway. At the half way mark I was already at 1 hour - I knew if my legs continued to hurt it would be a challenge to make my goal time but I tried my best to stay optimistic a focused on the scenery as much as I could to zone out as much as I possibly could. Mile 7 was no better at 9:42, mile 8 was at 9:50,and 9 was about the same up the long hill. The lowest moment was definitely when the 2:00 pace guy passed me going up the long climb - I was so disappointed in my day that tears welled up in my eyes(ask anyone who knows me I cry pretty easily - so not really a shocker).
The downhill was more painful than the climb - my shins and feet felt like they were on fire. The only thing that kept me going was if I walked it would probably get worse and would only take me longer to finish. All the one liners started running through my head - about you can do anything for 3 miles and tried to visualise my mom on the side of the road cheering me on ect.. So I kept going and focused on finishing - at least then I could say I finished - since I had lost hope of reaching my goal time since my legs never loosened up or felt any better.
The last couple of miles were slow and seemed to take forever - I knew that I would be the last one to finish of our crew and that everyone else would already be inside the stadium so there would be no one at the finish and I would have to tell everyone how bad I did - which is a horrible thing to feel/think.. I know/knew everyone one would be understanding but I really just felt like I had let myself down and was not happy.
I finished just behind the 2:00 pace guy - the clock said 2:02 :( I slowly made my way through the finish and into the stadium, got some oranges, and looked for the crew. On the way back to the hotel I finally broke down and cried - Kyle was wonderful and very supportive and I was able to mostly move past my disapointment and see the positive. After a quick rinse off we went and cheered for Steph as she finished up the full marathon which was very motivating.

1 comment:

Steven said...

The 2nd marathon I ever ran was Vancouver International back in 2000 and it was great. That is such a pretty city in a beautiful location. And running through Stanley Park rocked.

However, after the 3rd time climbing up and over the Burrard Street bridge (3 time at mile 25.5!) I was pretty much hating life!